Patients' Kin Go on Rampage

BHUBANESWAR: Tension prevailed at Capital Hospital here after a group of miscreants, who claimed to be relatives of two burn patients, went on rampage, damaging an ambulance and stretchers on Tuesday night.

The group belonging to Phalikia Bazar near Rajmahal square demanded that the two patients, who sustained burns, be ferried to their village in Nirakarpur instead of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack as advised by doctors.

According to police, around 50 persons, who had gathered on the hospital premises, asked a private ambulance driver to go to Nirakarpur free of cost. The driver replied in negative.

Later, they approached hospital’s ambulance driver who responded in negative stating that he was allowed to shift patients to Government hospitals only as referred by the doctors.

Enraged by the denials, the group turned violent and started harassing relatives of patients and hospital staff. Some of them pelted stones on the Government ambulance, broke its front glass and vandalised stretchers kept at the hospital’s entrance.

On being informed, a police team rushed to the spot and dispersed the crowd. Capital Police has registered a case of rioting in this connection and detained three persons belonging to Ashok Nagar area.

On the other hand, the family of burn patients Najma Bibi and Babuli Khan arranged a conveyance and shifted them to a private hospital on the outskirts of the City. The duo sustained burns due to a stove explosion while Najma was preparing dinner in their house at Phalikia Bazar slum, sources said.